Was Jeff Skalski Testing The Waters For Ultima Online 2?
Those who are familiar with the history of the Ultima series, and in particular the history of Ultima Online, may remeber the ill-fated Ultima Online 2…or Ultima Worlds Online: Origin, as it was also known for a while. Development of the game was announced shortly before Ultima 9 was released in late 1999, though it was ultimately cancelled for fear that it would compete with Ultima Online. And to be fair, many Ultima Online fans did react negatively to it, for fear that it would divert resources away from Ultima Online.
Here’s a handful of cropped screenshots that were released on Ultima Aiera…last year, I think…which show off a bit of the game world that had been built for Ultima Online 2 back in the day:
Now, the franchise producer for Ultima, Jeff Skalski, recently published a short letter to the Ultima Online community on the official Ultima Online website in which he discussed Ultima Online and also talked a bit about Ultima Forever. He also made what seemed, at first, a very spurious mention of another game:
Why is BioWare not putting more development effort into UO instead of wasting time on U4E? Why are they doing U4E instead of UO2?
…for those interested in seeing a UO2. No surprise announcements on that today, but what I will say by everyone continuing to support UO and Ultima Forever this is the kind of ammunition I need to convince the high level execs that the market is ready for more Ultima.
Now…I ask this in a spirit of pure speculation, but why would he mention Ultima Online 2 in a letter to the Ultima Online community posted on the official Ultima Online website a month away from the 15th anniversary of Ultima Online? Why mention Ultima Forever for that matter? Why mention anything other than Ultima Online at all? Massively seemed to think that he was asking for support from the community to help get Ultima Online 2 made, and they weren’t alone in that regard. Jeff Skalski wound up fielding very direct questions about Ultima Online 2 on Twitter:
@longtimeuofan I personally would love 2c it happen. Its 1 thing 2say & another 2do. Alot of things have to align n order to make it happen.— Jeff Skalski (@Jeff_Skalski) August 26, 2012
@longtimeuofan Yes.— Jeff Skalski (@Jeff_Skalski) August 26, 2012
The case I’ve made in the past, which is supported by Jeff Skalski’s letter, is that Ultima Forever is a starting point, a stepping stone to something more. My assumption, since Ultima Forever is clearly based on Ultima 4, has been that the end goal Mythic has in mind is a new single-player Ultima title, or new Ultima stories that follow on — with ties back to the lore and canon of the series — and tell new tales about a post-Ultima 9 Britannia.
And maybe that is one of their goals. But what if Jeff Skalski has another goal in mind as well…what if Ultima Forever is also meant to test the waters (as it were) for a new Ultima Online, a new Ultima Online 2 as it were? Clearly, the interest is there on his part, and he has evidently heard similar interest articulated by some Ultima Online fans. Is that what he was doing…attempting to gauge interest in Ultima Online 2?
And is that part of his vision for Ultima Forever? Not unlike what Richard Garriott and Portalarium are doing with each successive game they release (testing systems and strategies for the Ultimate RPG), is Ultima Forever — in addition to being a springboard for more classical Ultima games and stories — the first in a series of steps that Jeff Skalski and others would like to see ultimately lead to an Ultima Online sequel?
Just as the original Ultima Online 2 generated a lot of controversy among the Ultima Online community over a decade ago, there is some controversy this time around as well. As I mentioned, his letter was addressed to the Ultima Online community and was posted on the Ultima Online website almost about a month from Ultima Online’s 15th anniversary. It focused mainly on Ultima Online’s relationship to Ultima Forever, Ultima Forever itself, and with a few mentions of a Ultima Online tossed in. It then ends with him asking Ultima Online players to try Ultima Forever. To say that it’s not the letter to the Ultima Online community that many Ultima Online players were expecting would be an understatement.
Hmmm I actually don’t recall, there was that much misgivins from UO fans about UO2. There were some controverse about the setting, but I remember mostly excitiment, because really: the game was built upon UO’s design. Likewise I don’t recall UO2’s cancellation to be received with much joy.
Ultima X now that was another matter. THere was a lot of hate against it basically for NOT being an Ultima Online 2 kind of game, and much rejoicing over its cancellation. That’s basically the moment I decided to say “Frak you” to the UO community.
Regarding stepping stones, I would feel Mythic would love to have both but AAA SP and MMO Ultima games. But in truth I think a SP game would be the most complicated to get going, if only because unlike a potential UO2… I don’t see Mythic developping a AAA SP Ultima game at any point in time.
It depends on how much you had invested in UO and what you felt about the lore/setting. I remember a lot of UO players did not want to give up their characters, houses, etc. for a UO2. They definitely wouldn’t give all of that up these days. Many just wanted a new client, the same thing many want now. They were quite happy with their houses/castles/etc.
I also remember some wanting to stick to the existing UO’s world and not getting into steampunk elements in a big way (did we call it steampunk back then?). Which is really ironic, given that elements of UO2 and steampunk in general eventually made their way into UO. We are even in the midst of a story arc that included feeding punch cards into a machine, although they are thankfully bringing back a non-steampunk Lord Blackthorn it would seem.
The irony of course is that the shameless recycling of UO2’s content with Lord Blackthorn’s Revenge is the reason UO got steampunk content to begin with.
“Ultima Online 2” has historically ended badly… On multiple occasions, and for various reasons. Aside from the best known original sequel started in 1998 (later renamed to “Ultima Worlds Online: Origin”), there was “Ultima Online Trilogy” using the Unreal Engine in 2001, “Ultima Online 2: Kingdoms” using a modified Sims 2 graphics engine in 2003, and the Chinese “Ultima Online 3D” being developed by NetDragon in 2009.
MMOGs are extremely expensive and time consuming to create, and notorious for either being a big success or an even bigger failure. Since the community itself becomes such a large component of the game, it is extremely important to have a strong player backing on any potential project. A unanimous outcry of support for a new project would probably be the primary catalyst the team needs to prove it viable. Conversely, a lukewarm or negative response would likely relegate it back to the “eventually” pile.
Heh you’re just summing up Origin’s later years really : after UO and U9, Origin was basically a succession of MMO projects that all ended up being mismanaged and cancelled, often without even being announced.
And UO2 and UXO ironically, had strong player backing but that wasn’t enough.
I guess my two cents on a UO game don’t have a heck of a lot of merit. I never played UO… but…
Isn’t Richard Garriott basically already doing a UO2?
I would LOVE to see EA embrace his project as a properly titled UO2 if that’s at all possible.